Tips to help keep you and your family tick free

GOSHEN – As spring brings warmer weather, residents will begin venturing outdoors again. For those of us in the Hudson Valley, this can also mean the chance of exposure to deer ticks and the diseases they can transmit.

Lyme disease continues to be the most common tick-borne disease in the region and a focus of many public health awareness efforts. Unfortunately, over the past decade the region has also begun seeing other, potentially more serious, tick-borne illnesses, including babesiosis and anaplasmosis (formerly known as ehrlichiosis) that have started taking hold in the Hudson Valley.

While the numbers are still relatively small compared to the incidence of Lyme disease, both babesiosis and anaplasmosis can present with high fevers and symptoms which can easily be confused with other severe illnesses. Fortunately, all of these illnesses respond to the appropriate choice of antibiotics, so diagnosis as early as possible is key.

"Avoiding a tick bite in the first place is the best line of defense and critical to the prevention of Lyme and other tick borne diseases," said Dr. Jean M. Hudson, Orange County Commissioner of Health. "After spending time outdoors, it’s important to do a thorough tick check of yourself, your children, and your pets."